James Hooper

James Hooper, as executive director of the Balkan Action Council, a Washington-based non-profit organization, analyzed the Balkan situation for the media in interviews with the Lehrer Newshour, CNN, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bosnian television, BBC, Voice of America, National Public Radio, Radio Free Europe, and numerous other broadcasting outlets plus frequent interviews with major US and foreign newspapers and news magazines. His frequent public speaking appearances included occasional testimony before Congress. He was the subject of a feature article in the New York Times “Public Lives” series in 1999. Previously, as a career United States diplomat with the Foreign Service for 25 years, Mr. Hooper served at assignments in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the 1973 October War; Beirut, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria, during the Lebanon civil war and formative years of the Arab-Israel peace process; Tripoli, Libya, during the Qadhafi-inspired mob attacks against the American Embassy; London, England; Kuwait, where as Deputy Ambassador he negotiated and implemented the naval protection agreement for reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers; and Warsaw, Poland, where as Deputy Ambassador he led the effort to prepare Poland’s post-communist government and military for NATO membership. He also served as the State Department’s director of Canadian Affairs and as diplomat-in-residence at the Political Science Department of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While serving as deputy director of the office of East European and Yugoslav affairs from 1989-91, he was responsible for managing US bilateral relations with the Balkan and Baltic states. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1997.